by Pastor Douglas Brauner

“Wasting Time with Jesus”

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

All our valued possessions are headed to the garbage pile. Clothes wear out. Phones die. Cars break down. Things that we once couldn’t live without end up forgotten in some garbage can.

So often we get wrapped around the axle of loss. We don’t like it that what we once thought was precious now has no value. So, what do we do? We buy something else to take its place only to have that new shiny object eventually end up in the same trash pile.

It’s a never-ending cycle.

“Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ.” 
Philippians 3:8 New Living Translation

The stuff of heaven will never be thrown into a garbage can. What is of greatest value is not anything on which we can put our hands. It’s not something new and shiny. It’s the eternal value of knowing Christ Jesus.

Everything in the world will disappear. However, as stuff vanishes we gain Christ. I have watched people in the process of dying gain something of greater value. They see Jesus before they see Jesus. The eyes of faith lay hold of him so clearly that it’s as if he’s present with them even before they’re present with him.

We don’t have to wait until our last breath to gain Christ. This journey of gaining Christ all began when we were baptized into him. The more we grow in our relationship with Jesus, the more we “waste time with Jesus” (Nouwen), the more we gain the treasures of heaven.

“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.”
Matthew 6:19-20 New Living Translation

How about we not worry about our stuff today and waste some time with Jesus?

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado